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just how hot is hot?

I did a post at the end of summer on my tiny gas metre box garden. Nothing flash. Just a few pots of greenery that keep me centred. The chilli plants happily flowered and grew, they even got through the Noah’s Ark of winter rain thrown at them. Then they turned red, actually they are still turning red. Slowly changing from subtle green, to come on- I dare you red.

Now when I planted these little fella’s I wanted something a little feisty. The packet said hot, actually it said piccante. It was an Italian heirloom variety. So anything labelled piccante, and I have high hopes.

Not gaspingly, oh for the love of god, find me a river and submerge my firey mouth.

But, hey…Oooo, yep, that’s a bit hot right there.

Something like that anyway.

So they have been turning red, and I’ve slowly been collecting them on my kitchen window sill. A little fiery red mountain growing. Each day I wonder, just how hot they are.

these look like a completely different variety, but I'm sure they came out of the same packet.

Blueberries are also flowering. Last season there was just a tiny handful of flowers that seemed to take six months to actually develop the fruit. This year with quadruple the flowers, I’m hoping the fruiting doesn’t take quite so long.

Rosemary is also happy. I just have to remember not to remember it. It’s never happy when I give it too much love and attention. Neglect, and the odd whisper of I’m still watching you, and it seems to thrive.

There are some other pots as well that look empty, but have sleeping seeds in them. What’s in there though and I wouldn’t have a clue. I planted them one evening and then got rushed inside. Distracted for the next few days, I never quite made it back out to write what I had planted and where. So now, wouldn’t have a clue what was in there.

Never mind, who doesn’t like surprises….especially the plant kind.

Now, speaking of surprises, I think it might be time to find out just how hot that chilli really is…

Ha, our neighbours gave us some large pale green peppers, or so we thought. We threw them in a favourite pasta dish and oh my goodness they were hot. Definitely chillis rather than peppers. We ended up adding cream etc to the dish to make it palatable.

My son ate a chilli from a bush in my garden when he was very young. All I could do was sit him in a tub of cool water and pour water all over his face until the pain went away. He was asking me to put cream on his teeth, the poor little mite. He gave that bush a wide berth for a long time after that. Those things are hot!

Ok now I have garden envy again! Have a few herbs going and picked up some $1 seedling punnets at the markets on the weekend, so tomorrow is planting day, will have to blog and show mine off too. Cheers

My jalapeño peppers aren’t ripening up yet, and now we’re running out of summer warmth and longer days of light. Happily, it’s not like 15-years ago here when you couldn’t find a good, hot pepper in the supermarket. Now you can find them even at the corner shop.

I heard recently that it’s not the seeds that are hot but the membrane, and if you remove that film even the hottest pepper is edible. Have you heard that?

They look HOT to me- how do they smell?
Sometimes you can smell the heat- your nostrils quivering from the very contact of their aroma! My nephew is from Texas- and once he braggingly ate a pepper he had erroneously identified as a jalapeno right off the plant. It wasn’t- some blisteringly hot variety, instead- and his face turned bright red- we gave him bread, butter and milk and still he was in agony. Be careful around those hot peppers!

I know what you mean about the smell Heidi, but these ones don’t have any of note, however they are HOT. I licked a tiny piece last night and had a numb tongue for 5 minutes.
Your nephew- brave man! Ouch.

so fun to see blueberries in this form – ive never seen them like this before! living in india has given me a totally new perception on “hot” – i used to never be able to handle spice, now i can take it like a champ. so i have no ability to judge just how how is hot anymore…good luck! 🙂 – al

I love the hardiness of rosemary – ours gets no watering except when it rains and gets picked to within an inch of it’s life, yet still the little bugger soldiers on! It’s a hive of activity on your metre box – hope you get some blueberries!

Chillis look so gorgeous – which is nice for those of us like myself who aren’t so appreciative of too much heat

I wish my rosemary would flourish – I have been ignoring it and it seems to ignore me in return – maybe karma for living in a house where we ripped out the rosemary plant – but I swear it was my housemate who did it